When we enter into a grocery store, a school, or perhaps a government office building we expect reasonable order and predictable ways of doing things. We do this all the time, and maybe we take order and predictability for granted.
But suppose you were to go into a grocery store and find canned goods mixed in with soaps and detergents, meat in the vegetable department, milk and cheese where bread and cookies belong. Boxes of stock are stacked in the aisles and no one is manning the checkout lines.
No doubt you would think, “What is going on here?” and “Just who is in charge?”
Last week we started a sermon series on the book of Ruth. We saw that this short, but important book of the Bible takes place in a time of great chaos, the time of the judges of Israel, when “everyone did what was right in his own eyes.” It seemed to be a time of the sovereignty of the self. It was what one writer has called a “gray zone” between two eras, in this case between the time of the judges and the coming of kingship in Israel. The book of Ruth presents us a picture of how God’s people can live righteous lives in very unrighteous times, in a gray zone between eras.
Today we also seem to be in such a “gray zone.” The observation “everyone does what is right in their own eyes” seems to perfectly describe life today. Just look at the news every day.
No doubt we all come to think, “What is going on here?” “Just who is in charge?”
The second chapter of Ruth begins to answer these questions, not just for the time of Israel’s judges, but also for our own time as well. Join us this Sunday for a deep dig into God’s Word in the book of Ruth.